Saturday, January 29, 2011

Could Michele Bachmann Get Any Meaner ?

It pretty obvious that the teabaggers in Congress are a crazy group of people. They think that anything that doesn't put dollars in the pockets of the rich is unconstitutional, and have demonstrated that they would love to remove all the safeguards of the working and middle classes and the elderly. Among the things they want to abolish: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, minimum wage, child-labor laws, Education Department, health care reform, corporate regulations, birth-right citizenship, drilling regulations, environmental protections, and much more.

But when it comes to bringing the crazy, Michele Bachmann is supreme. And she has just shown that she is the most mean-spirited and hard-hearted of all the teabagger politicians. She has proven that with her desire to cut veteran benefits while the country is still engaged in two unending wars, and our soldiers are still being killed and wounded every day -- not to mention the physical and mental traumas they still face even after completing their military service.

Bachmann wants to freeze health care spending by the Veterans Affairs Department and cut disability benefits for veterans -- by $4.5 billion, including reducing disability compensation checks for over 150,000 veterans. It should come as no surprise that the veteren's groups are incensed over her ridiculous proposal. Here is some of what they are saying.

Veterans of Foreign Wars national commander Richard L. Eubank:"The only discussion the VFW wants is to tell the congresswoman that her plan is totally out of step with America's commitment to our veterans. No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress. There are certain things you do not do when our nation is at war, and at the top of that list is not caring for our wounded and disabled servicemen and women when they return home. I want her to look at those disabled veterans in the eye and tell them their service and sacrifice is too expensive for the nation to bear."

Rich Rudnick of the National Veterans Foundation:"Cutting back on the VA right now would be showing contempt for American servicemembers' sacrifices."

David Gorman, Washington executive director of Disabled American Veterans:"It is unconscionable while our nation is at war that someone would even think of forcing our wounded warriors to sacrifice even more than they already have. Their injuries and disabilities were the result of their service to the nation, and our nation must not shirk its responsibilities toward them. How do you tell a veteran who has lost a limb that he or she has not sacrificed enough? Yet Rep. Bachmann wants to do just that."

Veterans for Common Sense executive director Paul Sullivan:"Cutting veterans' health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is really astonishing to see this."

VoteVet.org chairman Ashwin Madia:"Michele Bachmann's plan would turn veterans away from the care they've earned and deserve. Congress voted for two wars that have created many veterans that now need help, and we cannot -- and will not -- turn our backs to them. That's bad policy that I think even a majority of Republican voters will stand squarely against."

Is this really what the teabaggers voted for? Do they really support the destruction of all safeguards for ordinary Americans and turning our backs on America's veterans in the middle of two wars? Or has Bachmann just gone off the deep end? I hope it's the latter.

Democratic Delegates

1991 delegates needed

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Biden - 2000*

Bloomberg - 36

Buttigieg - 20

Gabbard - 2

Klobuchar - 5

Sanders - 1059

Warren - 56

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-John Steinbeck

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What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.-Molly Ivins

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